If you live in the North West and are offered any of the above from a source you don't know or are bit suspicious of, could you please PM me and I'll pass the details on. Its a very slim chance but you never know.

Keep an eye on ebay....... A Mills .75 that was stolen from me at Old Warden eventually turned up two years later. I bid for it and got it. I then asked for my money back but the seller claimed they bought it at Weston Park and then stopped answering messages. I informed the police and even supplied them with the seller's name and address but they couldn't do anything because I couldn't prove that the seller knew it was stolen goods......... But at least I got my best Mills back!

I can remember how I felt when my garage was broken into. I only lost one plane but also several tools and three boxes of aero modelling kit.

Last Saturday my eldest son and his friend were due to fly home from Alicante in Spain. They drove their hire car a Ford Fiesta to a car park not far from the airport and went to a cafe for a meal. They then drove to the airport and opened the car boot only to find all their luggage had been stolen including their passports and flight tickets and all their clothing, door keys and car keys. They are due home this morning having had to arrange new passports buy new clothing and flight tickets. I gather the Alicante police suspect there is Rumanian gang with equipment capable of undermining modern car locks-----worth remembering if you are in Spain ! .

Quite some years ago now, one of my friends had a very expensive and readily saleable modelling item stolen from the boot of his car just after arriving home and whilst the vehicle was unlocked on his drive and he'd momentarily gone inside his house to get something. The thieves clearly knew of his movements and planned to steal the item beforehand - obviously followed him, cheeky so-and so's. Not a nice thought. Long time ago and I don't remember whether the item was recovered or not.

A good friend of mine, who works as a crime scene investigation officer, reliably informs me that taking the roof off a shed is by far the most common form of gaining entry. It only needs 2 men, 1 sledgehammer and a couple of well place (upward) blows and they're in.

It's your properly, yours to do as you wish with. You also have a right to arrest the vendor as a citizen. An arestable offence, theft, has taken place, and you have reasonable belief he did it. Reasonable force can be used to effect the arrest.

But think about it before you try. You have backup?, the bottle to do it? Don't mind if you get injured? And what will always wind old Bill up is wading in, bottling out, and asking them to try to sort out you mess up. But in that case I have little doubt that Avon and Somerset's enquiries into a stolen bike were minimal.